Over the last several years, the growth of cell phones and messaging devices has increased the need for display functionality and performance. When considering the battery life of a mobile computing device, for example, the display assembly of the device is often a primary power drain, requiring refresh of its pixel data at various rates (e.g. 60 cycles per second). With these constraints, conventional battery power conservation techniques have focused on reducing power consumption by intelligently switching the display assembly off. Alternative conventional approaches have relied on turning the backlight of the display assembly off.
The use of mobile computing devices has increasingly become constant amongst some users. These devices are increasingly recognized for their ability to keep accurate time, provide useful information, or incorporate personalization (e.g. family pictures). These additional usages, which can sometimes act as fillers between sessions when the user is actively using the device, increase the role of the device in the user's life. Still further, some devices currently switch the display assembly off when the device is in active use, in anticipation of the user not needing the display. For example, some computing devices switch the computing device off when the user is using the device as a handset, presumably because instances of such usages, the user cannot see the display assembly.
In any scenario where the display assembly of a computing device is switched off, the user must perform some action like a button press to switch the display assembly back on. The display assembly is typically switched all the way back on, thus draining the battery supply, even when the user simply wants to view the time.